Verbs are tense

Locating ideas in time

Six verb tensesTenses ExamplesPresent I go.Past I went.Future I will go.Present perfect I have gone.Past perfect I had gone.Future perfect I will have gone.

Four principal parts of the verbThe infinitive To do (do), to go

(go), to think (think), to dream (dream)

The present participle

Doing, going, thinking, dreaming

The past Did, went, thought, dreamed

The past participle Done, gone, thought, dreamed

Auxiliary or helping verbsHelping verbs combine with main verbs to express tense, mood, voice, or condition. In a simple tense the verb stands alone, as a single word: John chortled. In a compound tense the principal part is supplemented by an auxiliary or helping verb to construct the tense: John has chortled, or John will have chortled.

Types of helping verbs

• There are three types of helping verbs: primary, modal, and marginal.

Verbs, like pronouns, have person and number

Present tense Singular Plural

First person I protest We protestSecond person You protest You protestThird person He, she, it protests They protest

Perfect tenses have finished.

• The three perfect tenses are “have” tenses; they all make use of the verb to have as a helping verb.

• The perfect tenses are tenses of things that are finished—either finished in the past, present, or future.

Present perfect I have returnedPast perfect By then I had

returnedFuture perfect By tomorrow, I will

have returned.

Have, not of

• Sometimes we use contractions like should’ve instead of should have. This has lead to the mistaken idea that we are saying should of, but it is should have.

• As a matter of style, we do not use contractions in academic writing.

Progressive forms are in progress.

• Each of the six tenses also has a progressive form or aspect, an –ing variation using the present participle- the -ing form of a verb- indicating action still in progress. The progressive form is made with the present participle and one or more auxiliary verbs.

First person singular examples of progressive form:

Present progressive I am protesting.Past progressive I was protesting.Future progressive I shall be protesting.Present perfect progressive

I have been protesting.

Past perfect progressive

I had been protesting.

Future perfect progressive

I shall have been protesting.